Nearly 100 Protesters Dead as Calls Grow for Iraqi Government to Resign

(MEE) — As the death toll nears 100 people killed and with thousands injured in a week of intense demonstrations, the Iraqi government on Saturday announced the lifting of a curfew in Baghdad as calls came for it to resign.

In the worst violence seen since the declared defeat of the Islamic State group in March, security forces fired live ammunition into crowds of people protesting across Iraq against corruption, unemployment and a lack of services.

According to the government-backed Iraqi Human Rights Commission, at least 93 people have been killed so far, while nearly 4,000 people have been injured.

Reuters reported police snipers shooting at protesters on Friday, escalating the death toll. Security sources have also accused gunmen of hiding among the demonstrators, while a number of police officers have been killed.

Demonstrations have taken place in numerous regions across the country in the past week, including Baghdad, Basra, Nasiriya and Mosul.

Concrete barriers have been erected in the capital Baghdad in areas where police clashed with protesters, a significant move in a period when many of the previous concrete barriers erected to prevent IS car bombings were being removed.

The Iraqi government has also imposed a blackout by blocking internet access across the country.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi was set to convene an emergency meeting on Saturday to discuss the protesters’ demands.

However, former prime minister Haider al-Abadi on Friday became the latest to join a chorus of voices calling on the government to resign.

Abadi, whose own political career was torpedoed by his response to similar protests in Basra last year, also called for the “formation of a criminal court of corruption” and warned that the reforms demanded by protesters needed to be swiftly implemented.

“Early elections should be called for the formation of a legitimate constitutional government capable of carrying out its national tasks, by 2020,” he said in a statement.

Influential Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has also called for the resignation of the government, and called on his Sairoun parliamentary group, the largest group in the parliament, to suspend its activities.

On Friday, the National Axis alliance, the largest Sunni parliamentary bloc, also announced the suspension of its parliamentary activities in response to the protests.

This article was chosen for republication based on the interest of our readers. Anti-Media republishes stories from a number of other independent news sources. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not reflect Anti-Media editorial policy.

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